By RANDY BRUNS
Standard Correspondent
DELPHOS — Monday night saw a battle of the Saints, and
it couldn’t have been held at a more appropriate place
than the Vatican.
In the end, it was the Roughriders of St. Marys taking the non-conference
victory by a score of 61-44 over the Blue Jays of St. John’s.
St. Marys kept its record unblemished at 5-0 while St. John’s
remains winless at 0-4.
Had it been a boxing match, the first half would’ve been
declared a knockout and the second half a draw. Since basketball
was the order of the day, however, the ’Riders came out
on top thanks to a blistering shooting performance in the first
two periods.
The visitors hoisted up 20 shots in the first half and 14 of
them found their mark for a deadeye 70-percent clip. The hot
shooting allowed the ’Riders to take a commanding 31-12
halftime lead. The Blue Jays recovered in the second half to
play even with the ’Riders, but the big deficit was way
too much to overcome.
“I’m very excited, because Delphos is a great program
with great athletes,” said St. Marys coach Bruce Brown.
“For us to be ahead by 19 at halftime was remarkable.
Going into this game I was very concerned, because they had
played three of the best programs in the area and battled all
of them tough. I was ecstatic to be in the situation we were
at halftime, and for us to play even with them in the second
half wasn’t a bad thing.”
St. Marys started out the game on fire, hitting its first five
shots. Emily Matthews, Krissy Haines, and Haley Fannon each
scored two buckets to help build a 16-6 lead at the end of one
period.
The second quarter was Ashley Hall’s time to shine. The
junior drilled four of the five shots she took, including two
three-pointers, in helping build the ’Rider lead to 31-12
at the halftime break.
“Ashley came off the bench and did a great job for us,”
said Brown. “She hit some big shots and helped ignite
our team. That was a big boost for us to get points coming from
some spots where we’re not used to getting them.”
After the game, St. John’s coach Dan Grothouse could only
shake his head in amazement at St. Marys’ shooting prowess.
“That was one of the best-oiled machines in the first
half that I’ve ever seen,” said Grothouse. “We
would try to take one or two people away and somebody else would
step up. They played like a veteran, well-coached team. They
were clicking, and it was very difficult to try to get anything
going against them. We were very hesitant offensively and that
just led to them being able to get more. They shot the lights
out.”
Haines led all scorers on the night with 18 points, Fannon chipped
in with 15, and Hall and Kerri Imwalle each contributed 10.
Kim Miller led St. Johns with 11 markers.
St. Marys will travel to Wapakoneta Thursday for a Western Buckeye
League game.
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